HMD Global launched five new mobile phones at MWC 2018, all with striking industrial design. By choosing to only offer handsets with Google's pure Android One or Android Oreo (Go Edition), HMD threatens to disrupt established OEMs with legacy software. The new Nokia 8110 demonstrates featurephones are evolving now with LTE and will not die soon. HMD's flagship Nokia 8 Sirocco has a stunning steel-framed dual curved edge display in a super compact frame which will target Europe.

Samsung is packing its main innovative push into the cameras of its latest flagship Galaxy S devices. With the new super slow motion video capture, Samsung has improved on previous industry attempts to commercialize this feature. The Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus are strong handset designs which evolve from 2017’s excellent S8. They are markedly different in camera quality and display size from the two to three year old smartphones potential customers own now which should boost upgrades. However, consumers may delay purchase because of rising flagship prices.

At MWC Sony Mobile unveiled two new smartphones, Xperia XZ2, XZ Compact and the commercial launch for its Xperia Duo wearable. The importance of Sony’s innovations with these new smartphones will set the tone for the smartphone market for the next few years. IHS Markit expects other smartphone OEMs to deliver similar capabilities in the future including copying Sony’s 4K HDR video capture. But there is much more work needed to re-build Sony’s smartphone business and achievable sustainable profitability.

Marking ten years since the launch of its first Kindle e-reader, Amazon recently introduced the All-New Kindle Oasis, the second generation of the brand’s Oasis e-reader series. The All-New Kindle Oasis, also known as Oasis 2 has received several significant improvements from its predecessor, the Kindle Oasis (April 2016 model).

For those consumers struggling to choose between a smart speaker and a tablet, Amazon has a new option, a 10.1-inch Fire tablet with hands-free Alexa on board. Incorporating an IPS, LCD-TFT, 1920 x 1200 display and a MediaTek quad-core (1.8 GHz) processor and a reported 10 hours of battery life, the new tablet is available in a 32GB version for $149.99 US. Users wanting more storage can purchase a 64GB version for an additional $40. The base model is less than half the cost of Apple’s popular 9.7-inch unit, but nearly double the price of Amazon’s 8-inch model.

IHS Markit has published the new data for Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay. The new data provides information on Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay’s addressable smartphones by region and by country for 60+ countries from 2014 to 2021

International pay TV provider Liberty Global announced a partnership with Netflix to bring the SVoD company’s app to Liberty Global’s advanced pay TV platforms in more than 30 markets across Europe and Latin America.

Mobile World Congress has historically been a place for lots of mobile payments hype but little substance. But the market is maturing. Apple Pay’s 2014 launch kick-started the market, and followed by Samsung and Google in 2015, mobile payments are becoming mainstream. There is no one size fits all solution and MWC 2016 highlighted the diversity of approaches. Operators, device makers and over the top players are introducing a range of different services.

Discovery Communications, following a recent deal with Dogus Media Group to acquire CNBC-e, will relaunch the channel under the TLC brand in the Turkish market in November. The agreement also includes a plan for Discovery to expand its current channel offering in Turkey as well as Dogus being Discovery’s exclusive ad sales representative in the region.

Facebook has launched Facebook Lite, a simplified and lighter version of its Android mobile app, which is optimized for 2G Internet connections. The app is aimed at mobile users in emerging markets, especially those with low-end Android phones.